Black Tie Barbecue

How to gain a Food Permit without losing your shirt in the process

2010-07-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

To commemorate our opening for lunch service on this upcoming Friday (“July 9th ) we’ve decided to share our journey to towards the privilege to legally prepare food for public consumption.

The road to a food permit can be scary, long, confusing and expensive. We managed to get our food permit in a short record period of time and we managed to not lose our shirts in the process. We purchased equipment, financed renovations, and paid for the necessary permits for about $8,500.00

We’d like to share our experience in hopes of alleviating the confusion in this process.

Ingredients

• 1 Realtor (we recommend Weslee Knapp of Keller Knapp Realty)
• 1 Location Equipped with Range Hood and Grease Trap
• 1 Underemployed Architect
• 1 Reliable Contractor
• 1 Smurf (We’ll explain later)
• 1 Pound of Courage and Willingness to stop at nothing to reach your goal.

Directions
1. Be humble, don’t be a know it all and forget anything you’ve heard about the employees at the Department of Health (especially in Fulton County). The Fulton County Department of Health inspectors are great people and they only want to help you reach your goals. If they are difficult, it is possible that you’ve done something offend, irritate, or frustrate. Don’t rock the boat.
2. Find a suitable location with an existing range hood and grease trap. At all costs avoid white box spaces, because the costs to build one out suitable for code can be a bottomless pit of money and a series of ulcers. A range hood and grease trap will cost you at least $30,000, but more like $50,000.00
3. Once you’ve found your ideal location schedule a Department of Health pre-inspection prior to actually signing your lease. A department of health pre-inspection will detail everything that needs to be done to bring your place to code.
4. Schedule a meeting with your contractor to get a detailed estimate on the costs to fix all the errors detailed in the department of health pre-inspection report.
5. Sign your lease. 36-60 months is par for the course.
6. Hire an architect to draw up site plans of your space. Don’t have your architect sign your plans. Pass them off as your own homemade plans as they’ll be scrutinized much less.
7. Submit your architectural plans to the Department of Health for approval.

8. Begin your renovations. We recommend paying for supplies and providing final payment upon completion of the work. (No exceptions or excuses)
9. Buy your equipment used and don’t pay the asking price. Shop around to get an idea of what stuff costs and then make your offer.
10. Hire a Smurf. Smurf is a God-send. (I don’t know where we found him) He’s got about 20 years in the restaurant equipment business. If you’ve eaten at a LongHorn Steakhouse chances are he installed the equipment and built out the kitchen.

11. Schedule your final inspection and pray.

12. Collect your food permit.

It is really simple. It shouldn’t take a long time and it shouldn’t cost you 10s of thousands of dollars. Feel free to reach out to us for more detailed questions info@black-tie-barbecue.com

Cinco De Mayo Suggestions

2010-04-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

Don't spend your Cinco De Mayo waiting in line

Don't burn too much money trying to have fun

Come be treated like the VIP you are

Click the flier below and join us for a great Cinco De Mayo !!!

Secret Supper Ticket

Spring Break: Navigating the endless food options on South Beach

2010-03-24T03:50:00.000-07:00

Starting Black Tie Barbecue has been a labor of love. The key word being labor. We have worked every holiday major or faux that has occurred since we have been in business. (I burned my nose and hand on 4th of July and ate something other than turkey on Thanksgiving.)

We chose Miami as our destination to get away from it all for a few days. We spent so much time deciding on the best place to stay on South Beach that our dining options were nothing more than an after thought. After a $60.00 experience, which consisted of overcooked chicken wings and a margherita pizza, which in actuality was a microwaved cheese pizza, we recognized the potential traps and pitfalls to avoid when eating on South Beach. In the process we also discovered places that offered memorable meals at reasonable prices.

Pay careful attention to the following pictures and avoid these type places at all costs:

Try not to frequent establishments that offer breakfast, lunch and dinner "specials" or that prominently display their food. I am sure there are exceptions to the rule, but our experience taught us that these type establishments can be a slippery slope .

On Ocean Avenue we recommend:

Go to News Cafe and get the huevos rancheros. The tortilla is the perfect combination of thin and crispy.

Our favorite dining experience on South Beach was the Latin American food served at a street fair on Lincoln (if you're lucky enough to catch the street fair on a Sunday)

For tasty yet inexpensive dining we recommend crossing the bridge and going to Little Havana.
Versailles offered traditional Cuban fare. Dinner for 4 with appetizers and Sangria came out to $80.00

La Camaronera, also in Little Havana, is a great seafood location. It is a standing only diner and everything offered is fried, but La Camaronera has some of the freshest tasting seafood that I have tasted in a while.

Now about the drinks:
BYOB is probably the best policy. Again, beware of the large garnished glasses that are offered by the same woman or man trying to "sell" you the Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner special.

As for Wet Willies, be sure to ask for the drinks made with rum, because the "other" drinks are made with grain liquor, which can ruin your Spring Break and the days and weeks to follow.

In conclusion:
We had a blast on SoBe. By no means is this a comprehensive list of dining options in Miami. If you're ever in Miami for a short period of time and on a limited budget keep our recommendations and warnings in mind.

By: Spencer Humphrey

Who Knew Salad Could Be So Complex?

2010-03-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I had the awesome privilege of attending a food styling workshop with the amazing @runwithtweezers (Ms. Tami Hardeman), food stylist extraordinaire. As the designated food stylist for Black Tie and just being a natural perfectionist, I wondered how much I’d really learn at an afternoon workshop. Boy was I over-confident! We only worked on a salad, but Tami broke that salad down like it was the most complicated entrée ever plated. And I realized that the skills I thought I had were minor in comparison. She had tools, strategies and secrets that were well worth the price of admission.

In addition to learning some really cool tricks, I met a great group of “foodies” and together, we had the opportunity to try those tricks out ourselves. Though it was a styling workshop, in some ways it was a photography course as well. We talked about proper angles to shoot from and simple tools that help you get the best shot of your plate. By the end, I was ready to sign up for Part II. So, if you love food as art and have a free Sunday afternoon, please check out Tami’s styling workshop. You won’t regret it! You can find Tami at: www.tamihardeman.com or on her blog http://www.runningwithtweezers.com/

by LaToyin Rollins

Napa Valley an Hour away from Atlanta: Our time at Montaluce Winery

2010-03-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

We started our blog in December 2009, but between the Secret Suppers, tending to meat on the smoker and trying to find inventive ways to keep our product relevant while we define who we are as a company we’ve lost our way as bloggers and our Blog has well, died in the process. Our goal is to take more time to blog in an effort to share our thoughts and help us reflect on the rich and rewarding experiences we’ve been blessed with.

Back in January we had the pleasure of being the guests of Rob Beecham (@MontaluceWine) and Brent Beecham (@MVineyards) for their Food and Wine Conclave. Prior to visiting Montaluce (www.montaluce.com) my Georgia wine experience was limited to an establishment off I-85. I had no clue that Georgia had a wine country. (Yes, our meal was free, but our opinions are our own.)

Montaluce offers the charm and romantic scenery of Napa or a Tuscan get-away without the expensive plane tickets, time zone changes, etc. Our time at Montaluce started with a tour of the winery sprinkled with details of the art and science wine making according to Oliver Asberger, Montaluce’s vineyard manager. Oliver told of his resourceful ability to keep birds away from the grapes and of course his farmer’s intuition, which enabled him to predict last fall’s monsoon season and thus pick the grapes before this year’s crop was ruined by rain.

Above is a picture of me inside one of Oliver's fancy wine things used in the fermentation process

Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I’ll let photos from the day speak for the wonderful 5 course meal paired with Montaluce Wines prepared by Chef Steven Hartman of Le Vigne Restaurant.

My favorite thing on the menu was the chicken liver mousse. I have never had anything like it. The key to getting your kids to eat liver is to have Chef Hartman prepare it for them. Chef Hartman's cooking demonstration on the chicken liver mouse also inspired me to learn how to sous vide our favorite cuts of meat (more to come on that in future blog posts.)

Don't take our word for it. Pay Rob and Brent a visit and experience Montaluce for yourself. The drive is scenic, the wine is top quality and the food is worth the trip by itself. If you're willing to wait an hour outdoors for brunch in Atlanta, you can certainly take the hour drive for this special experience.
by Spencer Humphrey

Black Tie Bok Choy

2010-01-29T16:52:00.000-08:00

Our friends who attended Sugar Coma have been begging us for our bok choy recipe. We catered the lunch for this wonderful event and bok choy was one of our side dishes! We have not been holding out on you. We've just been really busy - tweeting, catering, planning our next Secret Supper, watching Jersey Shore.
We are so glad that you enjoyed the bok choy and we would love for you to be able to enjoy it at home.
So let's get started.

Ingredients:
8 oz Bok Choy (1 bunch if you get a nice healthy one from the farmer's market - the grocery store bok choy can be a little anemic)
2 Tablespoons Sunflower oil or Peanut Oil (good for high heat)
2 Tablespoons of white wine (any white wine will do - water will work if you don't want the alcohol) 2 Tablespoons of Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 Tablespoon of soy sauce
Crushed Red pepper flakesSesame Seeds

Steps
1. Heat your wok or frying pan. The best stir fry is on the highest heat you can manage on your home stove. Just set the wok on the stove and turn up the gas.

2. Wash your bok choy. It's one of those vegetables that is usually visibly dirty when you buy it.

3. Add your sunflower oil or peanut oil to the wok and let it heat up.

3. Chop up your bok choy. Discard the white part. We're only using the leaves.
How finely should you chop it? Chop it however you chop your collard greens. You can chop it really fine or you can just rip the leaves into a few pieces. I like to roll a bunch into a cylinder and slice. Here's one of my bunches chopped.

4. Put your bok choy in your hot oil. You should hear a big swoosh and it should sizzle because your pan and your oil are nice and hot. The noise will be loud. Don't be startled and drop your leaves. And be careful. Cook the bok choy for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. In a small sauce pan, heat the sesame oil, water/wine, and soy sauce. When it starts to bubble, stir in the sugar. Then turn off the heat and let it sit.

6. Check on your bok choy. If it's starting to stick to the pan, add a tablespoon or two of water.

7. After cooking the bok choy for five minutes, pour your sweet sauce over the bok choy.

8. Cook the sauced up bok choy for one more minute.

9. Turn off the heat on the stove and the heat to the pan, i.e. sprinkle in a few crushed red pepper flakes according to taste.

10. Sprinkle on some sesame seeds for garnish.

11. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

Bok choy cooks down. Way down. My final "Enjoy!" picture actually triples the recipe. The original recipe only serves 2. Why did I do that? To make it easy for you to adjust the recipe to cook as much as you need. For every two people, add an additional bunch of bok choy, add 2 more tablespoons of sesame oil and wine, and add 1 more tablespoon of sugar and soy sauce.

To vary the recipe with more color or just to vary the taste if you want this bok choy often, add red cabbage or red onions or both. Add to the How much cabbage? A third of a head of cabbage per bunch of bok choy. Three bunches=whole cabbage. How much onion? Depends on how much you like onions. The onions in my picture are raw and are only a garnish. Add your red onions to the hot oil 5 minutes before you add the bok choy. If using cabbage, add your red cabbage to the oil 2-3 minutes before you add the bok choy.

To vary the texture, add roasted cashews! Roast your cashews first. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spread raw cashews on a baking pan. Add cooking oil spray and just a little salt. Roast 15 minutes. Stir well and roast another 10 minutes. Allow to cool while you prepare the bok choy. Sprinkle over the cooked bok choy. Yum!

To get more bang for your buck out of those sesame seeds, toast them and add a wonderful flavor. Put sesame seeds in a medium frying pan on medium low heat. Shake them around in the pan until they darken and become fragrant. Allow to cool and add to your cooked bok choy.

Try our Black Tie Bok Choy and let us know what you think. It's easy to make!

A Few Words Of Encouragement

2009-12-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

As we mentioned earlier, in addition to food, we'd like to use this blog to share our experiences as entrepreneurs as well.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to discuss the differences between entrepreneurship and what I like to call the "W-2 lifestyle" with a few friends. There are some definite perks to having a W-2 job, but I'd like to encourage our fellow entreprenuers to stay the course. One of the things I noticed in my conversations this week is that, for the most part, we entrepreneurs struggle through the first few years of the start-up phase, watching our friends get promotion after promotion, while we struggle to establish some stability in our businesses. Yes, it is a little depressing at times, but once we get to our late 30's we begin to see things change. Our W-2 friends usually plateau at some point - finding it harder to get the next promotion and really set themselves apart from their peers in making the type of money they'd like to make, and living the way they'd like to live. Entrepreneurs on the other hand, having struggled through the early phases, begin to see the money and stability that we so longed for early on, finally match that of our peers. Now here's the really exciting part.... As the years progress, our opportunities for wealth and work-life balance increase dramatically. While our conterparts are required to work much harder to keep the stability and income they've grown accustomed to, we entrepreneurs should find it easier to grow our wealth and relish in the stability we've created, despite the chaos we lived through years ago. With those odds, I for one am encouraged to stay the course...I hope you are too.

Stop Serving that $2 Trader Joe's Wine

2009-12-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is a recession. Yes, times are hard. Yes, money is tight. Yes, we're all on a budget. Yes, as the host providing drinks it is your choice to serve your guests whatever you'd like without going broke in the process. But does that mean you should not use creativity when entertaining your guests? We have noticed a trend lately at various events we have been invited to. The well intentioned host has served Trader Joe's two-buck chuck as an inexpensive way to entertain, only to have his party never get lively and to find himself at the end of the night with the same amount of wine he started with. I have actually been forced to bring home several bottles of the unconsumed Trader Joe's.

We are not against using two-buck chuck, but we are against pouring it straight out of the glass and serving it to your guests. We recommend that you try the following recipes and challenge yourself to come up with a few of your own. Please share your recipes with wine as an ingredient.

Absolute Ruby Riviera

Ingredients

1 part(s) Absolut Ruby Red Vodka
1 splash(es) Club Soda
1 part(s) Orange Juice
1 part(s) Wine Red

Instructions

Build equal amounts of Absolut Ruby Red, wine and orange juice over ice in a wine glass. Add a splash of club soda. Garnish with a ruby red grapefruit wedge.

Cranberry Spice

2 oz. Cranberry Juice
1 oz. Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
1/2 oz. Chambord Raspberry Liqueur
1/2 oz. Wine Cabernet Sauvignon

Instructions

Shake well with ice and strain into a martini glass. Use 3 cranberries for garnish on the rim of the glass.

A Perfectly Seasoned Holiday Turkey Technique

2009-12-18T15:44:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is now upon us, and I know we've all been confronted with the inevitable Holiday Turkey. You usually can't escape it on Thanksgiving, but I bet you try to squirm out of the grand ole bird for Christmas. Well, this year try out the BlackTie Barbecue approach to seasoning Turkey and put all of your dry, underseasoned and unimaginitive holiday Turkey experiences behind you.

Step 1
Make a rub with all of your favorite ingredients in a small bowl. Unfortunatly we can't give away the Black Tie Barbecue rub, but I'm sure you can come up with something on your own. I suggest that you combine all of your seasonings and taste the combination together prior to applying them to your meat to prevent over-seasoning, regardless of the cooking technique.

Step 2
With your fingers, carefully separate the skin from the meat of the turkey without ripping it. This will create a pocket to lock in flavor. Using your hands, scoop up some of the rub and begin massaging the meat under the skin. Continue this step until the whole turkey is seasoned under the skin. The legs and thighs may be difficult, but do your best not to rip the skin.

Step 3
Using a boning knife or the sharpest knife you have, make incisions along the breast and the bone as well as along the rear cavity between the thighs. Using your fingers, place the rub in the slits that you've created. This will create pockets on both the top and bottom of the meat - ensuring maximum flavor.

Step 4
Now we're going to oil up the bird. Use a mixture of olive oil and butter and rub it all over the bird. Next,take the remaining rub in the bowl, and begin rubbing it on top of the skin so the whole bird is well seasoned.

Step 5
Filling the cavity. Whether you're going for a traditional bird or an exotic flavor, putting onions, garlic, oranges, apples, celery, carrots, etc...into the cavity of the bird will create additional moisture and flavor during the cooking process.

Step 6
Follow directions for roasting your turkey. A good rule of thumb is 15 minutes for every pound at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 7
Enjoy and let us know how it turns out!

How to grill the perfect chicken breast

2009-12-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

Grilling chicken breasts can be tricky. To cook a chicken breast with a beautiful golden brown texture you're usually left with raw or undercooked meat in the middle. To thoroughly cook a chicken breast through you're usually left with a tough and overcooked outter layer, which resembles leather. Your friends at Black Tie barbecue have found the perfect solution to your conundrum.

Grill your chicken breasts over hot coals to sear the meat and add a golden brown texture to the outer surface.
Move all the hot coals to one side of the grill to create a "hot" and a "not so hot" section on the grill. Place the chicken breasts on the "not so hot" section of the grill
Cover the chicken in the "not so hot" section of the grill with an aluminum tray (Allow to cook for about 10-15 mins)
Using tongs ( We have burned our hands on several occasions trying to pick up the hot aluminum pan) remove the aluminum pan
Admire your fully cooked golden brown chicken breasts (note use a thermometer to ensure your chicken is fully cooked, chicken should be 160 degrees F. (71 degrees Celsius))

Entrepreneurship

2009-12-15T13:04:00.001-08:00

In addition to food, our first love, we'd like to share our experiences as entrepreneurs. From time to time we plan to share our experiences on starting a business with no capital, loans, or angel investors. Black Tie was created out of necessity and probably would not have started had we all had not been laid off from our previous occupations. Through the experiences of growing our business we've learned many great lessons which are too useful to hoard and keep to ourselves. What has been your experience with entrepreneurship? Are you in the start-up phase or has your business morphed into a full scale operation? How can we help you along your journey?

New Year's Eve Secret Supper

2009-12-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

Last year we found ourselves in a dilemma when deciding what to do for New Year's Eve. We were not interested in being over charged to be stuffed into a club and we wanted to do something beyond sitting at home watching the Peach drop on TV. We ended up having a great time in the North Georgia Mountains, but it was not the experience we were looking for. This year we've decided to create the experience we want and we're inviting you take part in the fun. We are going to start the night with a 5 course meal, move to the dance floor, have a roof-top champagne toast and then cap things off dancing like it's 2010.